ESP-based project not booting reliably

[gld20f]

Hi!

I have put together a small circuitry which is supposed to control a simple 12V RGB strip in a car through an IRLZ34N mosfet.
The "Mini D1 ESP32" has two tasks:
- toggle/dim the light through an externally connected button (not on the circuit plan, gets connected through BTN+ and BTN- on the connector at the top)
- toggle light on/off depending on whether there is 12V between the "sense" connection (on the connector at the top) and GND. This is realized using a voltage divider at the bottom right of the circuit plan.

I am using a simple 12V to 5V (USB) converter off Amazon, of which I chopped off the USB connector and am powering the ESP32 directly via 5V VCC and GND pins.

This setup unfortunately does not boot reliably. When connecting 12V to the setup, sometimes the ESP boots up correctly and sometimes it doesn't. This means it will turn on the red LED, but it won't control the LED strip (=run the program). Then even pressing the reset button as often as I want doesn't change anything - it has to be powered off and on multiple times until it works.

When powering the ESP over its USB connector however (5V coming from the same Amazon converter), it always works, which is why I suspect a power / hardware problem. I tried adding a 100uF C on the 12V, as well as on the 5V side, but noticed no change. I'd like to place this "Mini D1 ESP32" on a PCB, which is why I don't want to power it via USB.

Can you give me any hints on how to further debug this or what might still be missing in the circuit?

Thanks!

[ESP_Sprite]

Potentially an issue with power coming up too slowly. You can try adding an 10uF capacitor between EN and GND.